Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: The scripture says that Jesus has all authority. Jesus has sovereign rule over every authority, every principality. Jesus Christ has victory. Why? Because he's God.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled "All About Jesus." Let's listen in as JP gives us Part 6 of "The Reconciler."

JP Jones: When Jesus died on the cross, he not only paid the penalty for our sin, he defeated and triumphed over all authority and power, over all demonic opposition. So by virtue of his essence, he's God, and by virtue of his work, he died on the cross to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus has all authority over every power and principality. We've discussed this in the past, that in the New Testament, those terms are used to describe angelic rule.

That's not only a great theological truth, it's really practical because every spiritual opposition that you would encounter, that you may be encountering right now, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter six that our struggle isn't against flesh and blood. Husbands and wives, you may think your struggle is against each other. You may think your struggle is against your kids. You may think your struggle is against your neighbor. You may think your struggle is against your boss. You may think your struggle is against the person who works for you.

The Bible says it's not against flesh and blood. It is against the spiritual forces, authorities, and powers of darkness. There's a spiritual battle going on and we're in the midst of it. We live in the midst of this spiritual battle. But the scripture says that Jesus has all authority. Jesus has sovereign rule over every authority, every principality. Jesus Christ has victory because he's God and because he has already triumphed over every authority and power by his death on the cross.

In Christ, we have victory. Through Christ, we can triumph over the spiritual opposition that's coming at us. So men and women, rather than fighting against each other, you need to come together on your knees in prayer and realize we're one in Christ. Let's in prayer claim our identity in Jesus and claim the victory we have over this spiritual opposition that's coming at us. There's a difference between power and authority. I don't have the power to win the spiritual battle, but I do have the authority.

Power is what I have in myself: whatever physical strength, whatever intellectual strength, whatever willpower I might muster. But authority is delegated power. Jesus has absolute authority and he delegates that to me because of my union with him. In Ephesians chapter one, it says that Christ was raised and seated at the right hand of the Father above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that's named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

So Jesus now is seated at the right hand of the Father as absolute authority. Everything's been made subject to Jesus. That's the end of Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter two carries on the same thought: we were dead in trespasses and sins in which we formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air who's now at work in the sons of disobedience. We were like the rest, children of wrath.

But God, in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. He raised us up with Christ. He seated us with Christ. So we are right now, because of our spiritual position in Jesus Christ, seated with Jesus Christ. At the end of Ephesians one, where is Christ seated? At the right hand of the Father. What is true of Christ's seating? He's seated above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that's named, not only in this age but in the age to come.

Where are we? We are seated with Christ. So in Christ, we have the spiritual authority of Jesus over all rule, authority, power, and dominion. The truth of Jesus's authority impacts me and you. It impacts our marriages, impacts our families, impacts our church. We don't have to be losers because we're united to the winner. This was pretty important for the Colossians to understand. Truth sets us free, so Paul's giving us some truth.

He says in Christ dwells the fullness of God in bodily form and Christ is superior and has authority over all rule and authority. You need to know what's true about Jesus. But then Paul says something about us, believers. He says in Colossians 2:10, "We have been given fullness in Christ." You can't miss the connection. In Christ is the fullness of God in bodily form, the pleroma, the completeness.

We have been given fullness in Christ. Just as in Christ is the fullness of God, because we are in Christ, we are filled up with Christ. It's the verb plerōō, to fill or to make full. Ephesians 5:18 commands us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is in a construction in the Greek text that's called a passive construction. So it would be translated that in him, having been filled full, we have the present result of being full.

Our position in Christ is that we have, present tense, Christ's fullness. That's our birthright as believers in Jesus. It's our spiritual position. Being a Christian is not just having a biblical theology and it's not just having the willpower to live a new life and be changed in behavior. Fundamentally, being a Christian is becoming a brand-new person on the inside and having a whole new spiritual identity because you've been united to Jesus Christ.

It's having a personal relationship with Christ, and having that personal relationship with Christ means Christ is in you. Is that true for you? Being here obviously indicates you have a spiritual interest, but there has to be that transaction of surrender, of crossing the line, of truly embracing Jesus Christ so that Christ transforms us from the inside out. Paul says to the Colossians, because they put their faith in Jesus Christ, because they trusted in Christ alone for their salvation, "You have been given fullness in Christ."

That is the birthright of every Christian. So every person who has received Jesus Christ has the fullness of Christ. That's the spiritual position. It may not be our practice, though. It may not be how we actually live because we may be ignorant of it, or we may be in rebellion to it, or we may be struggling with the implications of it. That's why Paul in Ephesians chapter one prays for believers. And over again in Ephesians chapter three, he prays for believers and he prays this very concept of fullness.

This is what Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:16-19: "I pray that out of his glorious riches, God may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Why do you have to pray for something that's already true? That's the difference between position and practice. What's already true: we have the fullness of Christ if we're believers in Jesus. But what Paul prays for is that that would become the dynamic of how we actually live, that out of the fullness of Christ, we'd approach life, we'd do relationships, we'd glorify God, we'd live our lives in union with what is already true about us. It's been said that the secret of the Christian life is just becoming who you already are, living out of that birthright of that new identity in Jesus.

Truth matters. So Paul lays out these three truths in this passage. The first two are about Christ: in Christ dwells the fullness of God in bodily form; in Christ is above and superior and has authority to all rule and authority. And the third truth has to do with us: we've been given fullness in Christ. But Paul says because these things are true, there is an application. So there's a command. It's in verse eight: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

"See to it" is the first part that's the imperative. It's the verb to see, blepō. That's kind of a fun word to say, blepō. It just means to see, but it's not used in its literal sense. It's used in its metaphorical sense: take action, take guard, be aware, be on the alert so that nothing takes you captive rather than Jesus. So that no philosophy, no psychology, no theology captivates you if it's not according to Christ.

The command is make sure in every part of your thinking, you're loyal to Christ, you're focused on Christ, you're abiding in Christ, you're surrendered to Christ. Christ is to be the center of everything in our lives. Christ is to be the focus of our worship. Christ is to be the center of our thinking. Christ is to occupy our attention. Christ is to influence the way we think about our careers. Christ is to be the standard by which we understand marriage. Christ is to be the center for how we understand parenting. Christ is to be the very center of everything in our lives and every way we think about everything in our lives.

The command is interesting because it's "see to it that you're not taken captive." This is a word that's only used one time in the New Testament. So our understanding of it has to come from outside of biblical literature. And the way this word is used in Greek literature is describing the way a robber would come in and steal something and then take it away. So we're to be very careful that we don't let ideas steal our joy in Christ, steal our faith in Christ, steal our allegiance to Christ.

Ideas. The spiritual battle, you know where it is waged most intensely? Right here. So because in Jesus dwells the fullness of God in bodily form, and because Jesus has all authority over rule and power and authority, and because we have fullness in Christ, we're to see to it that we're not to be taken captive. And we're not to be taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy. Notice it doesn't say don't study philosophy and don't be ignorant of philosophy. I enjoy philosophy.

The word philosophia means love of wisdom. Philosophy is a great thing. It's empty, hollow, deceptive philosophy that we're to be on our guard against. It's a worldview that's just based on the elementary principles of the world. It's a life perspective that's rooted in worldly false assumptions rather than being rooted in Christ. Everybody thinks something. You may have never taken a philosophy course in your life, but you have a philosophy. You may have no understanding of all the vocabulary that's related to philosophy and metaphysics and ethics, but you think certain things about all those things.

The issue is, is the way you think about them according to Christ or according to the world? And the command is don't let the world influence and control the way you think. Instead, let Christ influence and control the way you think. I think the implications of this are powerful in our lives. We need to make sure that we're not taken captive to secular philosophy rather than according to Christ. The Colossians bought into a worldview known as Gnosticism.

Gnosticism embraced a Greek view of dualism: that anything of the body was somehow inferior or evil, but anything of the spirit or the soul was superior. And that dualistic philosophy then shaped the way they saw Jesus and they ended up with a false view of Jesus because they had been taken captive to secular philosophy. Maybe you have a secular philosophy that you don't even realize is causing you to misread the Bible and misunderstand faith.

Don't be taken captive to secular philosophy. I'm teaching a course up at Talbot Seminary. Yesterday, the whole day, we were talking about Christian ethics. Ethics is the way we take our moral knowledge and we translate it into making decisions about different dilemmas and issues. There's basically three approaches to developing any kind of personal ethic. One system says that there are certain absolute principles or virtues that apply to everybody and that's how we draw our ethics.

Another system says that ethics are purely utilitarian; in other words, the end is what matters, what's the result that's going to come out of the decision. And another way of looking at ethics is all relativistic, whether it's based on the individual or the situation or the culture. It's all relative. In our society, the dominant ethic is cultural relativism. In other words, we believe what we believe about right and wrong because we've been influenced by our culture to believe what we believe about right and wrong.

Be careful you don't become captive to that. Because by its very nature, relativism is self-defeating and folds in on itself. You just have to think about it a little bit and it becomes really clear. Because here's the underlying presupposition of relativism: everything is relative. Well, if that's true, that statement's relative and I've just defeated the system of relativism. It folds in on itself. There are absolutely no absolutes and everything is relative. Well, then that's relative.

From a logical standpoint, it's self-defeating. But from a moral standpoint, it becomes very problematic. Because if we buy into moral relativism, into cultural relativism, then we lose any position for reformation or activism or a prophetic voice speaking against the ills in society or in another society. So if we buy into cultural relativism, we can't look at what's going on in Africa in terms of sex slavery and say that's wrong and immoral. All we can say is, "Well, that's their culture and that's what they do."

We can't look at certain parts of India where when a woman's husband dies and they cremate the husband, they burn the woman alive with the husband. That's their cultural practice. We can't say that's wrong; it's just their cultural practice. Cultural relativism is extremely problematic both logically and morally. Don't be taken captive to any form of secular philosophy. Make sure you're captive to Christ and Christ alone.

Another implication of this is that we need to make sure we're not taken captive to religious theology rather than according to Christ. The Colossians believed that Jesus was a manifestation or an emanation from God, but they did not believe that he was God in the flesh, the unique God-man. You can take a religious truth, a theological truth, and if you make that the focus of your mind and the focus of your interpretation and the plumb line by which you understand everything else, you will become completely imbalanced in your view of truth.

So you could take any good truth. You could take the good truth of human freedom and make that the focus of the way you read the Bible and you will end up with a view of God that he doesn't know certain things and he isn't in charge of certain things because everything's being played out by us and he doesn't even know what our choices are and he doesn't even know what's going to happen. He's no longer sovereign.

On the other hand, you can take a good biblical truth like the sovereignty of God, and if you make the sovereignty of God the focus of the way you understand everything, then you become a hyper-Calvinist where God has so determined everything that we are mere puppets and have no choice or responsibility because everything's been scripted out. What you've done is you've taken a truth and you've made that the focus of the way you understand everything else.

How do you avoid that? How do you avoid the extremes and have a perspective that brings everything into wholesome balance? You focus on Christ. If you make Jesus the focus of your understanding and you find Jesus in every book of the Bible and you see how every doctrine comes back to teaching you something about Jesus, you will have wholeness, health, harmony, and growth because it's all about Jesus.

So the command is see to it that no one takes you captive through secular philosophy or through religious theology or through relational psychology rather than according to Christ. We live in a day when everything is being explained by some disease model or genetic model. They're trying to find the gene that explains certain behavior. I'm waiting for them to find the "jerk gene" to excuse myself from being a jerk. "Well, I just got the jerk genes, honey, so I'm sorry. I have a genetic predisposition to be this way."

Now we laugh at that, but there is a prevailing attitude that basically says behavior is because you have some kind of disease or because you have some kind of genetic predisposition. And the impact means you don't have to take personal responsibility for it and you don't have to repent and change. Where the biblical model is either there's a demonic oppression and that you need to be delivered and set free, or it's a sinful behavior that you need to repent from.

We can be taken captive through some form of relational psychology rather than according to Christ. We can be taken captive to a hedonistic morality. I mean, certainly, God wouldn't want me to not feel good, would he? Because doesn't God want me to feel good? And isn't it all about what feels good? And isn't the question I should ask myself about any decision, "Does it make me feel good?" No, that's not the question we should be asking. The question should be asking is: what's God's will? What does Jesus want for my life?

The point I'm trying to illustrate is, just like the Colossians, we can be taken captive to a way of thinking that is according to this world but is not according to Christ. And so what does Paul do in this passage? He says, "Let me tell you what's true. In Christ is all the fullness of God in bodily form and Christ has absolute authority over all human and demonic powers and authority. And you've been given fullness in Christ. So because of that, see to it that nothing takes you captive other than Jesus Christ." So here's the bottom line for today and tomorrow and for the rest of our lives: let's focus on Jesus and let's make sure Jesus is the Lord of every area of our lives.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives: 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

For your gift of twenty-five dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, "Facing Goliath." Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at CrosslineChurch.com. We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in this study in the book of Colossians talking about the fact that it's all about Jesus. Salvation is only in Jesus Christ and life transformation is only in Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle Paul in Colossians 2:8-10 exhorts us not to be taken captive by any worldview or philosophy or way of thinking that isn't rooted in Christ. We're to have our entire personalities transformed by Christ.

That's why Jesus said we're to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Everything about us is to be surrendered over to Christ, rooted in Christ, and built on Christ. Because in Jesus Christ is all the fullness of God in bodily form. Jesus is the unique God-man. He's the only Savior and he's the Lord of creation. And Jesus has absolute authority over everything. In Matthew chapter 28, when giving the Great Commission, Jesus said all authority is given to me in heaven and earth.

And we're told in Colossians that Jesus is the head over every power and authority. And this construct in Colossians, similar to the book of Ephesians and the book of Romans, is not talking about merely human authority, but also angelic authority. Jesus has sovereign authority over all angels, over all demons, over Satan himself. And because Jesus is the God-man and has sovereign authority, we are to be fully committed and surrendered to him. And all of our lives are to be built upon the foundation of Christ.

Have you surrendered everything to Christ? Your mind to Christ, your will to Christ, your priorities to Christ, your desires to Christ. Jesus is the God-man and Jesus is Lord. Surrender everything to him. Let's pray. God, I pray that we would surrender everything to Jesus Christ who is the Son of God, who is God himself, who is the sovereign Lord of everything. Jesus, be the Lord of our lives. In your name we pray, Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives: 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you'll find us at CrosslineChurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to CrosslineChurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.